.. 


The  Battle  of  Newbem,  N.  0.,  March  14,  1862 
by  Lieut.  F.  W.  Browne 


Cfje  Lftrarp 

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Onifcemt^  of  Jl3ortf)  Carolina 


Collection  of  jRortS  Caroliniana 

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of  tfje  Class  of  1880 

Cp970.73 
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The  Battle  of  Newbern,  K  C,  March  14,  1862. 


By  LIEUT.  F.  W.  BROWNE. 


THE  morning  of  March  13,  1862,  dawning  upon  a 
sky  heavily  overclouded  with  fog  and  a  drizzling 
rain,  found  the  fleet  of  the  Burnside  expedition  to 
North  Carolina  lying  at  anchor  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Neuse  River,  and,  as  soon  as  it  was  light  enough  to 
see,  the  entire  fleet  started  up  the  river,  the  naval 
division,  of  course,  in  the  advance.  About  ten  o'clock 
in  the  morning  the  navy  found  the  enemy's  position, 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  to  be  so  heavily  forti- 
fied that  it  was  unable  to  make  any  further  headway, 
and  so  the  land  forces  were  at  once  disembarked. 
This  was  done  by  the  light-draft  steamers  running  in 
shore  until  they  grounded,  when  the  men  on  board 
jumped  overboard  and  floundered  ashore.  From  the 
larger  craft  the  men  were  sent  ashore  in  whale-boats, 
but  before  any  went  ashore,  some  of  the  naval  vessels 
shelled  the  woods  at  the  point  of  disembarking.  The 
force  landing  consisted  of  the  three  brigades  of  Foster, 
Reno  and  Parke,  all  under  Burnside,  and  so  hurriedly 
was  the  landing  made,  and  so  few  were  the  facilities 
for  getting  ashore,  that  the  entire  force  was  totally 
without  wagons,  ambulances,  or  anything  on  wheels, 
until  after  the  battle  of  the  succeeding  day,  except 
two,  or  perhaps  three,  small  boat  howitzers  on 
wrought-iron  carriages,  which  were  dragged  by  hand, 

(30) 


THE  BATTLE  OF  NEWBEBN,  N.  O.  31 

and  every  round  of  ammunition  for  which  was  car- 
ried by  hand  over  the  most  execrable  of  roads,  for  the 
battle  of  the  next  day;  and  the  same  of  all  hospital 
and  food  supplies. 

The  force,  being  on  shore,  at  once  took  up  its 
line  of  march  for  Newbern,  and  about  2  p.  m.  came 
upon  the  enemy's  first  line  of  defense — abandoned. 
Some  of  the  men,  remarking  its  strength,  suggested 
that  the  enemy  must  have  a  strong  place  to  fall  back 
upon,  a  surmise  which  was  abundantly  verified  the 
next  day.  Marching  until  about  9  p.m.,  the  regi- 
ments simply  filed  to  the  right  and  left  into  the 
swamp,  and  bivouacked  for  the  night  as  best  they 
could  in  the  rain.  Early  the  next  morning  the  men 
were  astir,  and  soon  the  order  came  to  advance,  and 
the  regiment  to  which  the  writer  belonged  had  gone 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  when  I  saw,  at  the  side  of 
the  road,  Generals  Foster  and  Burnside,  with  a  few 
of  their  staffs,  and  a  young  man  in  citizen's  clothes, 
slender  and  dark-complexioned,  evidently  a  native, 
who  was  being  subjected  to  a  rather  stern  and  severe 
cross-examination.  I  heard  Foster  say  to  him  :  "  You 
say  that  the  enemy's  line  extends  from  the  railroad 
to  the  river?  "  and  he,  pale  as  the  white  horse  he  sat 
on,  answered  faintly  in  the  affirmative.  Whereupon 
General  Burnside  said:  "You  have  betrayed  us." 
By  this  time  I  had  passed  out  of  hearing,  but  what  I 
had  heard  was  calculated  to  make  a  raw  recruit  open 
his  eyes. 

Immediately  the  head  of  the  regiment  was  turned 
to  the  left  from  the  main  road  into  a  small  cart-path, 
and  the  regiment  had  just   about   drawn   its  entire 


32  G.  A.  B.  WAR  PAPERS. 

length  into  said  cart-path,  and  off  of  the  main  road, 
when  we  received  a  volley  from  the  right  and  front, 
of  artillery  and  musketry,  at  close  range  and  of 
deadly  character.  It  killed  our  lieutenant-colonel, 
Merritt ;  carried  away  my  captain's  leg,  and  killed 
and  wounded  a  good  many  of  the  men ;  and  the 
battle  of  JSTewbern  had  opened.  The  command  was< 
given  on  the  right  by  file  into  line,  and  the  men  began 
firing  as  soon  as  they  came  into  line.  We  continued 
firing  until  our  ammunition  was  exhausted,  when  we 
were  ordered  to  fix  bayonets,  fall  back  ten  paces  and 
lie  down,  and  the  attempt  was  made  to  bring  the 
Eleventh  Connecticut  Regiment  by  the  left  flank  in 
front  of  us,  which  was  an  abject  failure,  as  the  regi- 
ment went  all  to  pieces  under  the  enemy's  fire.  This 
regiment  afterwards,  on  other  fields,  more  especially 
at  the  stone  bridge  at  Antietam,  won  glory  and  honor, 
but  I  venture  to  say  the  survivors  do  not  "  point  with 
pride  "  to  the  battle  of  Newbern. 

About  this  time  the  Twenty-first  Massachusetts 
charged  the  enemy's  line  at  the  point  where  the  rail- 
road crossed  the  line  of  the  enemy's  works,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  in,  but  were  promptly  thrown  out 
again  by  a  countercharge  of  the  enemy.  Soon  after, 
the  order  was  given  to  charge  at  the  point  where  the 
pike  crossed  the  line  of  the  enemy's  works,  and  it 
was  made  by  the  regiments  at  hand,  led  by  the 
Twenty-fifth  Massachusetts.  This  got  in  and  stayed 
there,  and  then  was  revealed  the  point  of  weakness 
in  the  enemy's  engineering,  for  although  their  lines 
were  very  strong  to  the  front,  they  were  all  open  to 
the   rear,  with  no  inclosed  works  or  traverses;   and 


THE  BATTLE  OF  NEWBEBN,  N.  G.  33 

so,  when  we  were  once  inside,  we  took  everything  in 
reverse,  and  swept  the  enemy  from  their  works  to  the 
right  and  left  at  once.  Some  of  the  water  batteries, 
which  had  kept  back  the  navy,  were  iron-clad  toward 
the  river,  but  had  no  defense  to  the  rear,  and  we  soon 
silenced  their  heavy  guns.  The  battle  on  our  part  of 
the  field  was  soon  closed,  but  for  twenty  minutes  at 
least  the  long  roll  of  Reno's  musketry  arose  from  the 
swamps  beyond  the  railroad,  where  the  enemy  were 
making  stubborn  resistance  to  his  advance,  in  igno- 
rance of  what  had  befallen  their  comrades  near  the 
river.  We  had  captured  an  entire  battery  of  twelve- 
pounder  brass  Napoleons  at  the  pike  where  we  charged, 
and  also,  of  course,  all  the  heavy  guns  in  the  river 
batteries. 

^The  enemy  having  disappeared,  we  took  up  our 
line  of  march  for  Newbern,  arriving  about  an  hour 
later  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Trent  River,  opposite 
the  town,  which  at  that  time  was  a  sight  to  behold, 
the  enemy,  in  his  retreat,  having  fired  the  railroad 
bridge,  steamboats,  mills,  warehouses  full  of  cotton, 
rosin  and  turpentine,  the  dockyards,  etc. ;  and  the 
flames  and  smoke  were  going  straight  up  to  the 
heavens.  We  found  a  small  boat,  and  about  ten  of 
us  got  in  and  rowed  over  and  landed  at  the  wharf  at 
the  foot  of  Craven  street,  and  all  that  evening  and  the 
succeeding  night,  and  part  of  the  next  day,  were 
searching  around  the  town  for  our  regiment ;  indeed, 
we  did  not  succeed  in  finding  it  until  it  was  pointed 
out  to  us  by  the  provost  marshal. 

The  next  morning  after  the  fight,  a  small  squad 
of  Confederate  cavalry,  bearing  a  flag  of  truce,  came 

3 


34  O.  A.  R.  WAR  PAPERS. 

slowly  down  the  pike  to  the  town,  turned  into  the 
main  street,  and  passed  on'  down  until  it  finally  drew 
up  of  its  own  accord  before  the  headquarters  of 
General  Burnside,  no  one  having  even  taken  the 
trouble  to  ask  what  it  wanted  or  where  it  was  going. 
While  General  Burnside  was  considering  the  message 
it  brought,  and  having  an  answer  prepared,  there  was 
a  good  deal  of  lively  talk  between  the  crowd  of  our 
boys,  who  gathered  around,  and  the  Johnnies.  The 
Rebel  lieutenant  in  command  was  a  smart,  snappy 
little  fellow,  and  did  not  seem  much  impressed  with 
our  way  of  doing  guard  and  out-post  duty,  for,  before 
leaving,  he  confided  to  us  his  purpose  to  take  ten  men 
the  next  night  and  come  in  and  capture  the  whole 
outfit. 


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